Penn Men Still In The Hunt For The Ivy Title

PHILADELPHIA, Pa. 3/2/12 – The University of Pennsylvania Men’s basketball team remains alive in the chase for the Ivy League championship. The task is well-defined for the Quakers, keep winning. It will not always be easy. It will not always be pretty. This one was a grinder, gut check game. But the Red and Blue came out on top with a 54 – 43 win over the Brown Bears at the Palestra in a game that was much closer than the final score indicates. Senior guard Zack Rosen led the Quakers with a game-high 19 points, and knows his team needs to ‘just win.’

Penn guard Zack Rosen - scored a game-high 19 points

“This late in the season Coach is talking about finding ways of getting it done,” said Rosen. “Just finding ways of getting it done and come out on the W side. That’s what we did, find a way. It wasn’t pretty obviously. We prefer an ugly game, but we got it done. It’s one more in the win column. So, we’ll be ready tomorrow night.”

Penn trailed at halftime 24 – 22. Over the last 8 minutes the guards stepped up and led the team to the win. Senior guard Tyler Bernardini hit a three-pointer with 8:02 remaining to give Penn a 39 – 36 lead, one they would never relinquish. Rosen and Sophomore guard Miles Cartwright provided the offense from that point onward.

The offense was not going to carry the team in this game. It was their defense that did. Penn held a depleted Brown team scoreless for over six and a half minutes early in the second half, but Penn could not pull away. However, over the last five minutes Brown would get just one basket which allowed Penn to get their final margin of victory. The Bears played essentially five players in the game.

“At one point we put together five stops,” said Allen about Penn’s defensive effort. “We weren’t doing a good job of executing our offense then. But we believe we are going to win a basketball game when we get stops.”

Penn improves to 18 – 11 on the season, and is 10 – 2 in the Ivy League. Tied with league leading Harvard in the loss column, Penn just needs to win and all will take care of itself. Win one game at a time.

“Just stay in the moment,” said Allen. “We’re a long way from where we need to be as a team. There are two games left in the season. That can be an eternity. For us it’s 15 minutes to enjoy this, and then think about Yale.”

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